I was reading another thread about leather conditioners and there was some discussion about how they absorb, or don't absorb into leather. It was suggested that they actually just evaporate. I wasn't too sure I believed this, but as I was reading it I thought of a short experiment to test this. Heres what happened....
First, I grabbed a piece of glass and cleaned it with alcohol. Then applied a drop of Pinnacle Leather Conditioner
I put my finger in a plastic bag and rubbed the conditioner around for about 20 seconds. By the time I went to take the picture it had already started evaporating.
Here it is after sitting for only 1 min. Pretty big difference there.
After 2 min.
And after 3 min. As you can see its pretty much all gone, but left a VERY faint residue behind.
So I tried it again, but this time I used Leather Master's Leather Vital. Again, I cleaned the glass with alcohol. And applied a drop of LM.
Spread it around for about 20 sec.
After 1 min.
After 2 min.
After 3 min.
After 4 min. As you can see, LM did not evaporate nearly as fast or as much as Pinnacle. I rubbed the remaining residue with my finger still inside the bag and the residue was very sticky.
As you can see, leather conditioners do evaporate rather quickly. I also think they evaporate MUCH faster when you're using them on actual leather. So there isn't much time for them to absorb into the leather either way. I still wonder why the leather feels softer and usually has a darker appearance after applying a conditioner? Id imagine some of it must get absorbed and the rest really does just evaporate.
Oh, and hopefully this was a good experiment and actually shows something worth while. If not, then dont be too harsh, its 4am.
